I think you're being naive. The "kid" is 19-year-old adult. He could easily tell his dad to go away and not associate with him. He is complicit in the sideshow because it gets him attention but his dad comes off as the bad guy.
Actually, a 19 year old can not shut their parents up. All 3 of those kids are nice, well-mannered kids, with a father that just so happens to be quite a bit yappy. It's not like their troubled kids.
What's even more hilarious is all the people that have believed his father was serious. He was doing nothing more than hyping his son up and getting his name out there. This is how the big dollars come. Name recognition drives the high dollar endorsements. It's called marketing. I've always thought this and even before this article. Just think, obviously it works, because more people know the name of the #2 pick than they do the #1 pick.
"But when the Lakers came to his house, LaVar broke character — or caricature — and said the one thing professional hype masters never reveal.
"'He just said it's marketing,' Johnson says. 'That's what he had to do to market not only his son but the brand. Before I met him I had already thought that. I already knew what he was doing.'
"But hearing it straight from LaVar's mouth helped put Johnson and Pelinka at ease.
"As Johnson recalls, 'He said, "Earvin, look, I'm not following my son. I'm not going to be hanging out in L.A. I'm going to be training these young kids [his other sons].'""
Additionally, LaVar told Shelburne that he told Johnson that Lonzo was in Johnson's hands now.
"'As far as training my boy, this is as far as I can take him,' LaVar says he told Johnson. 'I'll leave it up to you to take him further. You can get him better with the film time and the coaching. You can take him to another level.'"
"'I trust you with my boy. I just got a great feeling that you guys are going to take Zo to a whole other level.'"
